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"How many figures are required to play Hail Caesar?" Topic


Hail Caesar

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08 Apr 2017 8:45 a.m. PST
by Editor in Chief Bill

  • Changed title from "How many figured are required to play hail Caesar?" to "How many figures are required to play Hail Caesar?"

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Deucey Supporting Member of TMP07 Apr 2017 12:54 p.m. PST

What's the minimum and what is the expected average?

Puddinhead Johnson07 Apr 2017 1:12 p.m. PST

Lots and lots.

Deucey Supporting Member of TMP07 Apr 2017 1:27 p.m. PST

That's what I was afraid of.

raylev307 Apr 2017 1:33 p.m. PST

Like many other games you need about 6-10 units so it depends on how many figures you put in your units. If you use 24 figures per unit (and you can use less or more), you'd need between 144 and 240 figures. Of course this is a ballpark figure depending on how many units you want in an army. Personally I think 6 units on a side is a good first goal and can give you a pretty good game.

advocate07 Apr 2017 2:25 p.m. PST

Bear in mind that a unit is what you decide. So while building an army you could use 2 40*40me bases for a normal unit. If you like the rules and would prefer more figures in a unit then you can expand as you wish.
But a bare minimum of three commands of three units is what I would recommend to get the most out of the command system.

arsbelli07 Apr 2017 4:24 p.m. PST

Using 28mm figures, and a typical HC standard unit frontage of 160mm, the 'average' heavy infantry unit would have 16-24 figures (2-3 ranks of 8 each), a medium infantry warband would have 32 figures (4 ranks of 8 each). A standard-size heavy or medium cavalry unit would be 150mm wide and have 12 figures (2 ranks of 6 each), while a small unit of skirmishers would have 8 figures spread out in open order.

Using the smallest recommended army size of 3 'divisions' consisting of 4 non-skirmish units each, and then throwing in 2 units each of cavalry and skirmishers, you would be looking at an army of around 232 figures, plus command stands. But as others have said, you can determine the 'proper' size and number of figures for your own standard HC units for yourself.

iceaxe07 Apr 2017 5:00 p.m. PST

Or very little. We've played quite a few games with 4-6 units of 12-16 (depending on how they are based) in a single command and it works very well. We could have used a single stand per unit of 6-8 and had the same result, we just had the troops so went bigger. It was Dux Britannarium armies at first, then just 150 pts from the lists later. I think the Dux Brit. army style worked better, in fact.

You could use 8 figures per side and the system would still work. The rest is what looks good for you.

Diocletian28408 Apr 2017 4:14 a.m. PST

It is really up to you. There is no minimum number listed. Even base sizes are up to the gamer. I set my "standard" unit at 120mm base width. I have my foot individually based on 20mm x 20mm bases. An individual unit then has 12 foot for me. Two rows of six. Same as Impetus. A division is four units. A smaller game is two divisions.

I can play a game of Hail Caesar with two divisions (eight units) a side, so that makes 96 figures of foot. That makes the requirement for figures less for me than a standard 200pt ADLG game or 300pt Impetus game. Still more figures than DBA.

So, for me, Hail Caesar requires less figures than other Ancient games I play, except for DBA.

Frederick Supporting Member of TMP09 Apr 2017 5:56 p.m. PST

Depends on how many figs you want per unit. I agree you need 6 – 10 units per side at least, which can mean 6 figs per unit (one fig per stand for a standard unit) or 24 figs per unit (which is what I and a lot of others use)

I must say that for me the answer is lots and lots – our last Hail Caesar game had about 300 figs per side

CptKremmen20 Apr 2017 3:03 a.m. PST

For a "proper" game you need 3 divisions and each division has to have 4 non skirmish units.

Game i played last night i had 15 units including 3 skirmish units. That is about as small as you can go and play the rules as intended.

I use 12cms bases with 20 men in a pike unit, 10 men in other heavy or medium infantry units

8 men in a light infantry unit

4 men in a half size skirmish or light infantry unit

7 men in a heavy cavalry unit

4 men in a small light cavalry unit

So about 200 figures in a pike army or 150 figures in a roman type army is about the minimum.

I have played with 15mm and 28mm. 28mm does look much better but that is of course just my opinion.

If you buy for example Victrix plastics which are excellent the cost will not be too high. The issue is the amount of time they take to paint.

Funnily enough despite the size difference i don't really find 28mm take much longer to paint than 15mm at all and i generally have less 28mm figures in a unit so overall painting time is probably about the same for me

Andy

Come In Nighthawk08 Dec 2018 8:45 a.m. PST

I keep to the recommended base sizes (or close anyway), but I have increased the individual base sizes to account for the more "heroic" 28mm figures I like to use (Foundry, for example). I use Infantry at 25mm square not 20mm, and cavalry at 30mm x 50mm, not 25 x 50. This has the result of reducing the number of figures that will fit on a movement tray for a "Standard" unit from 16 down to 12, thus saving money, time (on painting), and keeping the number of figures more manageable. I have even taken to putting "heroes" on bases 25mm x 50mm so that, for example, Ajax in my Mycenaean army I am working on takes up the space of two "mortal men" on his unit's movement tray.

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